Azure Analysis Services Alternatives

Andrew analyzes and writes about Microsoft's data management, business intelligence, and machine learning solutions, as well as aspects of licensing... more

Azure Analysis Services (AAS) closely resembles two other analytic database technologies: SQL Server Analysis Services on-premises and the Power BI Microsoft-hosted service.

Compared to SQL Server Analysis Services On-Premises

Compared to Analysis Services in the full SQL Server product, AAS is limited to Tabular mode only and does not support Multidimensional mode, the original data modeling mode. The decision to only support Tabular mode is a strategic decision for Microsoft, as Tabular mode has become the main focus of Microsoft’s analysis services investment in recent years. It organizes data into tables, columns, and measures (key performance indicators), which is more understandable to end users, who are familiar with conventional relational databases.

The service supports most of the same APIs and features as on-premises, including partitioning, row-level security, bidirectional relationships, in-memory processing, and DirectQuery mode. However, compared to on-premises, the service is limited to a maximum data model of 400GB and computing power (processor and memory) limits are large but also limited. User access is managed through Azure Active Directory, which may require synchronizing with on-premises directories.

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